Green Fuel on the Seas: Frameworks for Future Production

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has set their recommended guidelines for the maritime industry to achieve a 40 percent carbon emissions reduction by 2030 and to reach net-zero by or around 2050. To accomplish this, however, an industry-wide transition of new and existing systems to utilize low-emission fuels, zero-emission fuels, and other technologies is essential. There are many options being considered to facilitate this shift, some more viable than others, however, a transition of this type and magnitude is likely to be a long process. In the short term, it is likely that low-emission replacement fuels like biodiesel and renewable diesel will be utilized in order to meet targets. However, in the long term, there will need to be a series of fuels that can generate low-emission exhaust while still providing some of the benefits found in the fuels currently used in the maritime sector. Two viable fuels being considered to achieve this are hydrogen and ammonia. Both of these fuel types are expected to become big players in the fuel market over the next few decades because they are both energy-dense enough as fuel that they can be competitive in a landscape where fossil fuels are not preferred. However, to accommodate these fuels, significant changes in the naval architecture will likely be needed, due to the larger fuel storage and alternative arrangements needed to accommodate the new technologies required to power a vessel with these fuels. This can be mitigated in large part with the introduction of the offshore production of fuel.